Roberta Hanley

Roberta Hanley is a screenwriter and the Founder and CEO of MUSE Productions, Inc. She is married to producer, photographer, and architect designer, Christopher Hanley. Together they make films and design architectural groundbreaking designs such as "The Invisible House" in Joshua Tree, California, and "The Honeymoon House" in Lamu, Kenya. They met while Roberta was attending Hampshire College, and Chris was still at Amherst College nearby. He was sleeping with her best friend Nancy Shavick. And it took a couple more years of scandal before they finally started to date. One fact is that Chris used to sell guitars to guitar collectors in London when he was in high school. He would finance his trip to Greece or Paris with a suitcase of books and the guitar sales. He sold one guitar to an American boy in Roberta's high school in London. Because Roberta was put ahead so many years in school, skipping 4 years, she was always socially behind the other kids. So when finally one boy was prepared to kiss Roberta and maybe even make out a bit, he jumped up at his parent's house, in the bedroom. And he said he had to leave and meet this American guy named Chris to buy a guitar. So Chris ruined that chance for a boyfriend and has since spent his life-ruining every chance since then! We realized 30 years later what happened and that Chris affected her formative development even before they met.

MUSE became a beloved film company that was able to produce so far 38 of the most impossible to green-light films. The company discovered actresses and actors of note, Reese Witherspoon, Christian Bale, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr., Cole and Dylan Sprouse, Selena Gomez, Brittany Murphy, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buschemi. So many creatives found a home with MUSE, the company shared and built with husband and Producer Chris Hanley. Together they developed scripts with writers and directors and found novels to turn into films. But when the shooting starts it is only Chris Hanley who works on location as a physical on-site hands-on producer.

Roberta Hanley with her screenwriting often polished the MUSE scripts or adapted its novels, such as American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis or Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho. Or the spy franchise, Expensive Education.

Roberta is known for her unique contribution to the casting of their films and discovering new actors soon-to-be superstars. Together they brought culturally relevant novels to the screen that Roberta and Chris loved. First-time directors formed a portion of the roster of films that they produced. So many of the directors, actors, and writers went on to make billions for the industry after evolving in their MUSE films.

MUSE may very well have helped to shape the film industry of today.

With some of the lightning rod successes striking small companies such as Lionsgate and A24. American Psycho and Springbreakers burst onto their distribution networks and built their companies with the early successes of these well-budgeted artistic films that struck the heart of the young audience and the social zeitgeist of the youthful audiences. Somehow the style of those early days is being carried forward now in a slate of films and series for streamers with a singular focus on staying connected to the generation that is still open and growing and who can build the future with love, art, and care by telling stories that help us empathize and overcome fears.

Early in life Roberta’s family, specifically her father had difficulty communicating with her, his very bright but rebellious and independent daughter. He tried to bridge the gap by playing a film for her that he recorded on the first Betamax machines, and he would show a story, that he wanted her to see. He wanted to say something to her that he couldn’t tell her to her face, and he could speak through the screen and say it so well, so clearly and convincingly. I think she has always spoken through film, and she envisions and finds growth and understanding and answers to the questions so much easier on film. It’s in her coding.

Roberta Hanley's Resume

Directors She Worked With On Her Scripts

• David Cronenberg
• John McTiernan
• Mary Harron
• David MacKenzie
• Jonas Åkerlund
• Stephen Hopkins
• Fernando Mareilles
• Frederico Fellini
• Johan Renck
• Michael Winterbottom
• Oliver Stone

Co-Writers

• Irv Walsh
• Martin Amis
• Orson Oblowitz
• Brian Fitzpatrick
• Frederico Fellini
• David Cronenberg

Book Adaptations

• American Psycho: Based on the book by Brett Easton Ellis, Directed by Mary Harron
• Going Down: Based on the book by Jennifer Belle
• The Serial Killers Club: Based on the book by Jeff Povey
• Woundings: Based on the play by Jeff Noon, adapted and directed by Roberta Hanley, and starring Guy Pierce, Ray Winston, Noah Taylor, and Emily Lloyd. Awarded best cinematography at the New York Independent Film Festival and the Mill Valley Film Festival.
• Expensive Education: Based on the book by Nick McDonnell to be directed by David Mckenzie
• Once a Pilgrim: Based on the book by William Skully (SAS)
• In a Country of Mothers: Based on the book by A.M. Homes
• Veronika Decides to Die: Based on the book by Paulo Coelho
• The Beautiful and the Damned: Based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Leopard in the Sun: Based on the book by Laura Restrepo
• Criminal Law 139: A Japanese film adaptation that was set in NYC with a switch from a male lead to a female lead.
• Dirty Martini: Based on the book by Bruce Crave
• Casanova: By Frederico Fellini. Wrote the "Birthday Cake Scene."

Original Scripts

Film

• Tropic of the Dustbowl, Co-written by Roberta Hanley and directed by Malerie Marder.
• The Apple Treatment
• The Portrait of a Playboy

Series

• Springbreakers
• The Second Coming

TV

• Pilot for FX Snap, Co-Written with Brett Easton Ellis
• An untitled darts TV Series, CJIATF43 based on the court trials of Demetries A. Grimes commander of the United States Navy.
• An untitled Russian mafia series co-written with Irv Walsh (Trainspotting).
• Kings of Karaoke, a sitcom based on Chris Hanley in 1980's New York who brought English-speaking Karaoke from Japan to America.

Plays

• A Dreamplay (Duke University)
• Primitive Love (Hampshire College)
• Gia (performed off-Broadway)

While at Hampshire College, the experimental college and a member of the 5 college system with Holyoke, U Mass, Amherst, Smith. Hampshire was the arts and science division in a coed co-habitation campus.

Museum Modern Art, Boston Mass. experimental video collection screened at Room Full Of Mirrors - director Roberta Hanley and actor Roberta Hanley Walk on The Wild Side - Vicious director Roberta Hanley starring Roberta Hanley, Ed Benfy

Karaoke Videos

• Dreams by Fleetwood Mac starring Roberta Hanley director Victor Ginsburg.
• Go Away Little Girl, staring Steve Buschemi, Mark Boone Jr., Anne Austin director Roberta Hanley

Acting

26 films including a role in The Virgin Suicides by Sofia Coppola based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides.

• 2005: The Nickel Children as The Waitress
• 2003: I Love Your Work as Katie's Korner Host
• 2003: This Girl's Life as Bored Beverly Hills Housewife
• 1999: The Virgin Suicides as Mrs. Weiner
• 1998: I Woke Up Early the Day I Died as a Housewife
• 1998: Modern Vampires (TV Movie) as Saleslady
• 1997: This World, Then the Fireworks as Younger Mom Lakewood
• 1996: Red Ribbon Blues as Savemore Pharmacist
• 1996: Trees Lounge as Roberta
• 1996: Freeway as Teacher
• 1995: Delta of Venus (film) as Opium Den Proprietor
• 1995: Savage Hearts as Lady Owner

Education

Hong Kong Kennedy Road Junior School Fort Lee, New Jersey, public school

Ecole International de Geneve, Geneva Switzerland as a day student. Freshman and sophomore years in high school.

The American School of London the last year and a half. Roberta attended Duke in January after turning 16 years of age in December. Duke University Roberta majored in Public Policy and Criminology. During her time as an undergrad, she was an advocate for Penal Reform and spent 1 year as a parole officer and advisor at Durham, N. Carolina Juvenile Court. Her studies included Politics of the Mass Media, Making of a Media Star with Sander Vanocur, Environmental Studies Duke Forestry, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and Dream Interpretation studies in association with the History department at the University of Richmond with the British Museum Egyptology Department.

Hampshire College Majored in playwriting and screenplay writing. Studies included Experimental Video Production with Peter Crown and French Surrealist studies.

NYC Theatre Studies The Actors Studio Theatre Acting, The Lee Strasberg Institute, Meisner Playhouse School of Acting.

Life History

Born in: Virginia, Massachusets

Has Lived in: Virginia, Minnesota, Rio de Janeiro, Great Neck Long Island, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Fort Lee, New Jersey, Geneva (Switzerland), London, Venice Beach, Durham, Amherst (Massachusetts), Maui, and New York City.

Current Residency: Joshua Tree, California and Kenya

Job History:

• Babysitter
• Waitress
• Restaurant Cashier
• Research Scientist for Dr. George Pieczenik in Geneva Switzerland in Monoclonal Antibodies for Cambridge University and Professors Crick and Watson contributed to the publishing of the discovery of the non-symptomatic strain of the AIDS Virus.
• Consultant to the Juvenile Court, and Parole officer to Durham, N. Carolina Juvenile Court.
• Alzheimer's research
• Secretary to director/writer/producer Jim Glickenhaus and William Lustig
• Jean Michel Basquiat art dealer
• Recording Artist Produced by Jo Callis and The Human League and Martin Ruschent, Africa Bambata and The Soul Sonic Force, Tito Puente, Paul Pesco, Robert Aaron, and John Robey
• Video directed while attending Hampshire College 2 pieces in the Museum of Modern Art, Boston, experimental video collection pieces entitled “Room Full of Mirrors” and “Walk on the Wild side”.
• Karaoke director and writer of "Go Away Little Girl" starring Steve Buschemi and Mark Boone Jr.

Roberta's Early Start in Film Roberta Hanley’s father Norman Rodman introduced Roberta to a friend of his daughter working as an assistant to Frederico Fellini’s in his office. When Roberta heard his screenwriter had died she provided Susie Mastorakis the assistant to her screenplay entitled. The Portrait of a Playboy includes a scene, the "Birthday Cake Scene" that Frederico Fellini liked and used for his film “Casanova” starring Donald Sutherland. They all walk down a hallway and pass all of the paintings of his conquests, and they stop in a room with a birthday cake that almost fills the room, round, with tiers covered in white icing and burning candles. They circled the cake in candlelight. The entire scene was written by Roberta at age 16.

Facts:

• Co-founder of MUSE Productions, the largest independent film company in the United States producing 38 independent films and distributing

Gaspar Noe's film, "Irreversible” in the United States

• Contributor to MANROD academy a charitable school for the Somali ORMA tribe, and refugees in Lamu, Kenya
• Affiliation: a longstanding member of the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG
• Her IQ is 189
• She directed the 1998 movie Brand New World, for which she was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at the 2001 New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.

External links

• Roberta Hanley at IMDb